Conventional luggage compartments for the above stated purpose comprise a housing that is part of the fixed overhead structure and a movable shell or trough that can be lowered for putting luggage into the trough or for removing luggage out of the trough and that can be raised into a closed position inside the housing which is open downwardly. The housing has two lateral walls and so has the trough, whereby a guide system is arranged inside the trough or bin. The raising and lowering can be performed as a tilting motion of the bin.
Overhead luggage compartments, troughs or bins which can be raised and lowered have the advantage that in the closed raised position of the trough, the trough does not interfere with the free movement of a passenger in the cabin and that in the opened position the trough is easily accessible for the easy insertion and removal of luggage pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,942 (Steidl), issued on Jun. 30, 1981, discloses a storage bin mechanism for use in passenger airplanes. The bin is connected to a fixed overhead downwardly open housing by two linkage mechanisms driven by respective pistons cylinder devices. Each linkage mechanism forms a pivoted quadrangle. The pivoted arms are of unequal length and so proportioned that the bin moves from its stowed position downwardly and slightly forward at the same time tilting slightly for ease of access. The arms engage each other in the downward position to increase the rigidity. A so-called spring cartridge or piston cylinder device is connected to the upper arms and to the lower arms of each quadrangle to counter-balance the weight in the bin and to hold the bin in the downward, open position. The upper arms of the two quadrangles are interconnected by a so-called torque shaft or tube that is connected through a lever to a further piston cylinder device. Since one end of each lever of each quadrangle is pivoted (at 11, 12) to the respective side wall of the bin, the bin itself is part of the quadrangle and thus must be correspondingly strong. The downwardly facing end of the upper lever that is pivoted to the bin is formed with a fork-shaped abutment against which the lower lever abuts when the bin is opened. This feature is intended to limit the downward movement of the bin and to provide a certain stiffness and stability to the pivoting quadrangles, especially in the lowermost position of the bin. However, when the lower lever disengages from the abutment the lateral stability of the system, that is stability in the longitudinal direction of the bin, leaves room for improvement. Further, the pivot joints must take up all the occurring loads caused by the weight of the luggage in the bin and by the forces applied for opening and closing the bin. Thus, the pivot joints and the levers themselves require a rather sturdy construction to provide at least some lateral stability. Additionally, the lateral walls of the housing and of the shell must be reinforced at least at the pivot junctions of which the Steidl structure requires eight such pivot joints, namely four for each linkage, whereby two pivot points 16 and 17 are pivoted to each side of the fixed structure, while two more points 11 and 12 are pivoted to each side wall of the bin. Such a structure leaves room for improvement.